Recap of the 2016 FISE Xperience Series
30 Aug 2016
16:53
FISE Xperience Series is the french Freestyle sports tour that has been going around 5 hosting cities each year since 2007. It is 350 000 spectators and nearly 465 riders from ten different nationalities. It is an ambitious concept with a spectacular combination of junior, amateur and professional competitions featuring the 5 FISE leading sports : BMX, Roller, MTB, Skateboarding and Wakeboarding.
This year, 5 stops in 5 different cities were on the schedule :
April 9 &10 : LE TOUQUET - Wakeboarding
April 16 & 17 : ODYSSEUM MONTPELLIER - Skateboarding
May 28 & 29 : CANET EN ROUSSILLON - BMX & Roller
June 25 & 26 : REIMS - BMX, BMX Dirt & Skateboarding
August 26, 27 & 28 : LE HAVRE - BMX, Skateboarding, Roller & Freestyle scooter
Each city having its preferences, it gave the chance to those who followed the 2016 FISE Xperience Series to watch several sports in the most fitting conditions for the selected sports.
Feets in the water !
This « tour de France » started at Le Touquet-Paris-Plage on the 9th of april. A Wakepark made of two olympic pools (50X20m) specially conceived for the occasion by FISE Area, welcomed this 100% Wakeboarding competition. Riders were pulled by a WakeStation cableway, a reference in the wakeboarding world.
This weekend all about wind and water also offered several side activities like sand yacht, pirogue, stand up paddle, kitesurfing etc.
Antoine Allaux took the first place on the podium followed by Jules Charraud and Wesley Gumpel.
Sports and Shopping !
The second stopover took place in the Odysseum mall in Montpellier on the 16th, 17th and 18th of april. The setting was quite original and it attracted numerous passers-by, curious about seeing a skatepark and a ramp set up in that place, only two weeks before FISE World Montpellier.
We got the chance to watch a competition dedicated to Street Skateboarding, won within a hair's breadth by Vincent Milou thanks to his quality run, linking perfectly moves like Overkrooked, Switch Back-Lip, Halfcab Feeble Reverse ; getting ahead of Joseph Garbaccio and Benjamin Garcia.
BMX and Roller demonstrations were happening on the FISE mythical Spine ramp, for the greatest pleasure of the public !
Between two purchases, the people of Montpellier could get an introduction to sports like BMX and Stilts from Les Landes.
A californian atmosphere !
The next city stopover was Canet-en-Roussillon, a beach resort near Perpignan, on may 28 and 29. The park with many lines possibilities was built on the mediterranean seafront, so the BMX Freestyle and Roller riders used the same spot for the competition.
Victor Munoz dominated the BMX stop, especially with his memorable Triple Whip, just before the Canadian Joel Bondu and spanish rider Francisco Torres.
As for Roller, the first three spots went actually to a french trio : Nicolas Servy, followed by Jeremy Melique and Roman Abrate who mastered the park.
The BMX Dirt comeback !
The 4th stopover took place in Reims, with 3 sports : BMX Freestyle Park, BMX Dirt and Skateboarding on 3 dedicated areas.
The FISE Xperience Reims was also the only stopover welcoming BMX Dirt among the tour ! This final offered an incredible show to the public, live broadcast on the Fise Facebook fan page. Riders from all horizons (Ecuador, Canada, Belgium, The Netherlands…) were present, confirming the international dimension of this Reims stopover. As a reminder, 500m3 of dirt were moved to create trails that would allow a maximum of air tricks. The final was explosive between the south of France rider Anthony Jeanjean and the Belgian Kenneth Tancre. Kenneth finally took the win nailing three perfect runs and notably landing a busdriver 720. The third step of the podium goes to the Argentine Inaki Mazza, the little blue-eyed boy of the public, only 15 years of age and already a great showman.
Joseph Garbaccio, neck and neck with Benjamin Garcia, sets the Street park on fire with his very innovative and technical runs. They are followed by Hugo Corbin who finishes in third place of this competition.
The weekend ended with the BMX Park final live broadcast on SFR Sport Xtreme and Fise.tv. It was a very aerial final and the Canadian Joel Bondu grabbed the victory after already qualifying in first. He finished on a high note with an ultra-noisy tyre blast that took the audience by surprise ! Consequently, he gets ahead of last year's FISE Xperience Series winner : Cam Peake and the young Tom Van Den Bogaard.
A Blue Bowl on the seaside !
On august 26, 27 and 28, the fifth and last stop of the 2016 FISE Xperience Series, during the "Week-end de la Glisse".
To close this french tour in the best possible way, four sports were featured in the competition : BMX, Skateboarding, Roller and Freestyle scooter, also BMX Flatland with demonstrations.
The big Pro Scooter final was scheduled on that splendid sunny saturday. The game was very tight between last year's winner Thomas Duchemin of Le Havre, Montpellier rider Alexis Beltran and the Parisian Auguste Pellaud. But the final word is… The South rider takes the victory back home, followed by Auguste Pellaud and the local of the stop !
Flawless, that's what the riders were about on that Skateboarding competition. Joseph Garbaccio from Le Havre wins after producing two perfect runs and an outstanding transfer on the Street part of the bowl. And that is how he got ahead of the second local, Rodrigue Dias, who impressed us all, and the famous Adrien Bulard totally fearless on his amazing frontside flip drop in.
In roller, the level was very tight between all riders but the locals fought like they should and their perfect knowledge of the park certainly worked in their favour. Tom Lamothe stood out with his very big transfer in front of Jeremy Suarez and his transfer in Flat Spin 540. The local Sébastien Cornette finished in third place ! The final was mixed and the girls did very well, with Manon Derrien dominating the category.
In BMX, Pierre Tortereau realized a breathtaking run, he managed to make the Skatepark his own, with a smile on his face and won over the young Canadian Joel Bondu by a little point, apparently less used to the Bowl although leading the qualifiers. Tanguy Labertrande who was riding as an amateur on the Reims stopover, finishes in third place of this nice final.
An exclusive space was built up on the beach for all the flatland demonstrations performed by professionnals. Jean Bulhon, Raphael Chiquet and Jérome Vormrock offered a performance within an idyllic scenery with the sea as background. It turned out to be a great way to attract the passers-by and keep the public excited all afternoon to close in due form this season of extreme sports.
The 2016 tour is an entry door to the 2017 FISE World Series. Indeed, following the five 2016 FISE Xperience Series stopover, the two first riders having added up the highest number of points on the entire BMX and Skateboarding tours received the WILD CARD, an entry ticket to participate to all the 2017 FISE World Series (flights and accommodations).
This year, the two great winners are… JOSEPH GARBACCIO in Skateboarding and JOEL BONDU in BMX Freestyle Park !
Stay tuned to know the dates of the 2017 FISE Xperience ! See you next year :)
